June in Latin America: All the tech news you shouldn’t miss

Unless you live in a cave, you’ll have noticed that Brazil is currently welcoming the FIFA World Cup 2014. For some reason I was expecting it would result in a news slowdown and well, I couldn’t have been more mistaken. Not only did this giant event bring its fair share of tech-related announcements, but startups also kept on working and closing new deals. Here are the news you can’t miss among all the noise:

A tech-heavy World Cup

Let’s start with some interesting news bits from the World Cup itself. As we reported, each game has resulted in a huge amount of social chatter all around the world, with both Twitter and Facebook reaching records and expecting new heights over the next couple of weeks.

Still, innovation hasn’t been getting as much attention as some of us wished. Indeed, controversy emerged on day one around the competition’s first kick. The fact that it was made by a person with paralysis using a mind-controlled exoskeleton was apparently not enough to grant it more than a few seconds air time. Here what you might have missed:

As you can see, they are not completely self-explanatory, which might be one of several reasons why TV channels barely mentioned them during live coverage. Still, it would have been nice to hear more on the ongoing work behind them – the Walk Again Project, led by Brazilian neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis from Duke University.

It wasn’t the only controversy around the World Cup, whose tremendous cost spurred numerous protests in Brazil over the last few months. This discontent also echoed online, when hackers took down the event’s official site for a few hours on June 20.

While there is no doubt that many Brazilians have more pressing needs than new stadiums, it still had a very positive impact for some of them. According to Airbnb, its platform reached a whole new scale with the event:

20% of World Cup attendees are staying in an Airbnb listing. Based upon # of listings, Airbnb has become Brazil’s largest hospitality co.

Interestingly, some of Airbnb’s newest hosts are favela (slum) residents who discovered the wonders of the ‘sharing economy’ by renting out rooms to foreign tourists who couldn’t afford overpriced hotels – or were attracted by the breathtaking views you can get from the hills.

Although it never quite took off in most countries, it gained tremendous popularity in India and Brazil, where it took years for Facebook to steal its crown. It eventually did in early 2012, and Orkut entered a slow and steady decline, accelerated by Google’s indecisiveness.

Considering its small number of active users left, the shutdown has been seen as somewhat of a non-event in most of the world. However, the reaction was different and more emotional in Brazil, where users took to… Twitter to share fond memories of their first social network.

As for Orkut Büyükkökten, we recently learned that he was working on his next venture, Hello, a “one-of-a-kind community of users who celebrate friendship, imagination, self-expression, and authentic engagement in a safe environment.”

It is also worth mentioning that Google has been conducting a unique initiative to showcase Brazil’s World Cup through its now famous doodles. As Brazilian magazine explained in an interesting post (in Portuguese), a team of 4 doodlers even flew to Brazil to get closer to the action and create unique animated drawings. Unfortunately, they got briefly caught in controversy when one of its drawing wrongly attributed an Argentine province to Chile. However, the company was prompt to apologize and correct the error.

Still in Brazil, Google recently conducted LTE tests in the state of Piaui as part of Project Loon, its initiative to provide balloon-powered Internet access. As we reported, Google was able to propel its high-altitude balloons into the air and connect a local school to the Internet for the very first time.

The company also released its TV dongle Chromecast in the country, Estadão’s tech blog Link reported. The device is now available in several stores for R$199 (around $90 USD). Google is working on partnerships to expand its local content offering, currently limited to a popular kids’ show.

Google also had news for Spanish-speaking countries, which accounted for 11 of the 12 new countries in which it recently rolled out Google Play’s bookstore. In addition to the Netherlands, the service is now available in Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Amazon is said to be negotiating with Brazilian manufacturers to start producing Kindle e-readers, Kindle Fire and its smartphone in the country, Blue Bus reported. This would represent a R$200 million investment (around $90.5 million USD).

Pinterest announced it would open an office in Brazil later this year, Telecompaper reported. According to Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, the social network has been working on hiring a team of 3 to 4 local employees.

Starbucks’ clients in Mexico will soon be able to pay for their drinks through their smartphone,. Indeed, Mexico is about to become the 4th country in which the coffee chain rolls out its loyalty app, CNN Expansión reported.

Still in Mexico, Sony launched its Video Unlimited movie service, giving customers in the country the ability to rent or purchase movie titles though the PlayStation Store, HD Report informed.

Startup expansions and launches

Gone! released a new iOS app that lets users connect with potential buyers sell stuff they want “gone”, TechCrunch reported. As the app description page warns, the service is only available to invited users in SF and Austin (where Gone graduated from TechStars). However, it will be interesting to see whether it expands elsewhere in the future, considering that its founders are Argentine entrepreneurs.

LATAMup’s startup map platform is now available in 6 cities: Buenos Aires, where its beta testing took place, as well as Bogotá, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Santiago and São Paulo. Just like Represent.la, on which it is based, LATAMup’s maps let users locate key members of the local tech ecosystem, from accelerators and incubators to startups and co-working spaces. In Latin America, its main competitor is Startupmap.la, which fulfills the same mission.

Brazilian fashion discovery startup Dujour launched a new e-commerce feature named Shop The Look to let users find similar items available to purchase in partner online stores. As you may remember, we previously listed Dujour as one of 12 Latin American startups to look out for in 2014.

Mexican mobile point of sale company Sr. Pago launched an innovative product called Sr. Pago Card System. According to the company, it is “the first service in the Americas that combines a smartphone chip credit card reader with a debit card that can be reloaded with payments accepted through the card reader.” In practical terms, it means that small business owners could collect payments through a Sr. Pago terminal, and spend their earnings as they please with their connected debit card.

“While the Sr. Pago card is available to consumers and small businesses in Mexico with traditional bank accounts, we see the greatest opportunity for impacting the underserved population in Mexico,” said Antonio Flores Aldama, CTO & COO of Sr. Pago. “This segment comprises approximately 61% of the population (more than 73 million people) whose payment and spending transactions are mostly cash based.”

Argentine 3D printing company Trimaker partnered with Staples to commercialize its T-Element model in its home country. In addition, clients will be able to go to one of Staples’ stores in Buenos Aires to print 3D objects.

Fellow Argentine startup Satellogic announced the successful launch (literally) of its third imaging nanosatellite, TechCrunch reported. Quoting the article: “The company was founded by CEO Emiliano Kargieman, who previously founded Core Security Technologies and came up with the vision for Satellogic while attending Singularity University in 2010. Describing existing satellite technology as “archaic,” Kargieman said he wants to launch a network of hundreds of satellites in Low Earth orbit that will allow customers to get “an image of any place on Earth in high-resolution and in real-time.”

Some got acquired…

Brazilian commercial automation solution provider Bematech bought ERP software development company Unum, Exame reported. The deal carries an initial value of R$30 million ($13.6 million USD), which could followed by an additional R$10 million ($4.5 million USD) payment if certain goals are reached.

Danish daily deal aggregator Bownty acquired Spanish competitor Yunait for an undisclosed amount, TechCrunch reported. In addition to the UK, Yunait operates in Southern Europe and in Latin America, which should help Bownty expand its international reach.

CNN Expansión.com reported that its parent company Grupo Expansión was set to be acquired by investment fund Southern Cross pending on approval from Mexico’s antitrust commission. Grupo Expansión is a multi-platform publisher whose properties include 17 magazines and 11 websites. The deal would put an end to Time Inc.’s 9-year ownership of the company, but not to Grupo Expansión’s exploitation of Time media brands.

European food ordering platform Delivery Hero acquired its Latin American counterpart PedidosYa, following a confidential partnership in place since 2013, the company announced on its blog. Originally from Uruguay, PedidosYa had expanded to Argentina Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela. It had received funding from Atomico and Kaszek Ventures.

In an interesting turn of events, Shoes4you is back from the dead. As you may remember, we wrote a post-mortem story about the company’s decision to close shop one year ago. However, it is now back online with a new owner, virtual shopping site MuccaShop, and a new business model. Instead of a Brazilian Shoedazzle, the site now operates as a traditional online retailer for third-party accessories – women’s shoes of course, but also jewelry and bags.

Brazilian online advertising startup Adtrade was bought by French online marketing agency ESV Digital, LAVCA reported. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

…and some got funded

Latino YouTube network MiTú raised $10 million in new funding round led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from previous backers, Recode reported. According to Crunchbase, “MiTú is one of the largest media brands dedicated to Latino content, with over 40 million subscribers and 400 million monthly video views, and covers topics from heath and food to pop culture. Founded in 2012, MiTú will use the latest funding to expand its presence in Los Angeles and Mexico City and build out engineering and sales efforts.”

Wine e-commerce platform Evino raised R$10 million ($4.5 million USD) from a private investor who chose to remain anonymous, Startupi reported. In addition, co-founder Marcos Leal revealed that the company had previously received R$2 million ($908k USD) in funding from Project A Ventures.

Argentine company builder Quasar Ventures launched a new venture called Rodati.com with a $1 million investment. Participants include Quasar itself as well as NXTP Labs, Richmond Global and a group of angel investors based in both the USA and Latin America (disclosure: NXTP Labs is an investor in my startup, MonoLibre). According to its founders, Rodati is an Internet company that seeks to simplify the new car buying experience in Latin America.

Miami-based venue recommendation startup Posto7 raised $925k in seed funding from NXTP Labs and other investors in New York City, San Francisco, Brazil and Miami, TechCocktail reported. The company recently graduated from NXTP Labs as part of its 6th acceleration batch (Disclosure: so did my startup).

Corporate education company Inbep received investment from Altivia Ventures, Startupi reported. It previously received funding from an angel investor and a personal investment from Altivia Ventures’ founder Cassio Spina.

Competition, acceleration and incubation

Miami-based mobile wallet solution Waleteros won this year GeekTank’s competition, the Miami Herald’s blog Starting Gate reported. As journalist Nancy Dahlberg noted, “Waleteros targets the 5 million Hispanics in the United States who are unbanked or underbanked, many of whom deal with check cashing stores now.”

Latino-focused initiative Manos Accelerator announced the list of companies that would join its Silicon Valley-based program, Pulso Social reported. While US-based companies accounted for half of the applications, 4 of the 7 selected startups come from Latin American countries.

Journalism 2.0

Newsgames are on the rise in Latin America, with more and more media outlets having a stab at creating innovative formats. A couple of weeks ago, Argentine fact-checking platform Chequeado launched Chequeate, a trivia quiz game available on its website and as an Android app, Infotechnology reported. As for Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo, it unveiled a newsgame called ‘O Mundo da Copa’ to let readers (and football fans) learn more about “World Cup’s world”.

A new platform was also born to keep up with this surge: Newsgame Vault, an online directory of newsgames. It was created in Brazil by Mario Lima Cavalcanti, editor of website for Brazilian online journos ‘Jornalistas da Web’. However, its perspective is global and it features projects from all around the world.

Government news

Argentina’s National Communications Commission asked ISPs to block access to The Pirate Bay, newspaper La Nación reported. The controversial measure is part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by the Argentinian Chamber of Phonogram & Videogram Producers (CAPIF in its Spanish acronym). In retaliation, its website was temporarily hacked… and turned “into a fully functioning and blockade-circumventing Pirate Bay proxy,” TorrentFreak reported.

Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT in its Spanish acronym) distanced itself from a sexist lecture given during the 5th edition of Campus Party that took place in Zapopan a few days ago, while issuing an apology and reinstating its support for gender equality. The event organizer Movistar Campus Party also apologized while removing all references to the talk, titled “Como hackear al sexo femenino” (which roughly translates as “How to hack females”). Manyvoices had expressed outrage at this incident, but also at a company’s appalling decision to hire a ‘booth babe’ and place a giant QR code on her buttocks.

In less depressing news, San Francisco is setting up a new structure called LatinSF to attract Latin American companies, SFGate reported. It is similar to ChinaSF, which brought 47 Chinese companies to the city so far. According to SFGate, San Francisco’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development is “in the “final stages” of hiring the head of the LatinSF operation and is rounding up $100,000 from private donors to match the city’s contribution, seems all set to go.”

Puerto Rico unveiled a project nicknamed ‘Gigabit Island.’ It consists of a $17 million investment to create an ultra-high-speed Internet network to serve its tech sector. The announcement was made during the island’s annual Tech Summit event, which also featured a hackathon focused on public services. According to its promoters, the new network will reach the same speed of one gigabyte per second as Google Fiber’s pilot project in Kansas City.